In a near-complete victory, James Cleaveland was found not guilty of “resisting arrest” and the jury was deadlocked 6-6 on his “disorderly conduct” charge this week. Here’s the full video of his trial and the pretrial motions:
Are you a libertarian or voluntarist and still haven’t signed up for the Free State Project? Your time is running out to make history with us. The FSP is now at 90% of its goal of 20,000 people pledged to move to NH and get active for liberty. Join at http://pledge.freestateproject.org
Why not go where thousands of libertarians are?
Anarchics host Renee Kate presented this year’s Ladies Panel at Keenevention, that turned out to be the final episode of Seditious Sirens, where she and her selected ladies from the Shire discussed their activism and took audience questions. Panelists included Katie McCall of Stone Manor, Ellen Ball of the Anarchics, and Ann Leverette from Flaming Freedom.
Big thanks to our 2015 video sponsor – Roberts & Roberts Brokerage – when you’re serious about precious metals – they take bitcoin!
Stay tuned to the Keenevention blog for more videos weekly and other media from the event. You can also follow the new Keenevention Twitter and Keenevention’s facebook page.
Justin M. Paquette Threatens Innocent Chalkers
Last week I published a story here at Free Keene about local hate group member Justin Paquette being arrested on two counts of felony armed robbery for allegedly holding up two local convenience stores with a knife.
Very soon after publishing, I was contacted directly by a local business owner who disputed that the Justin Paquette that had assaulted my friend Derrick J back in 2014 and was present during a physical attack by his friend on a peaceful local chalker, was in fact not the same Justin Paquette as was arrested last week for allegedly robbing the gas stations.
As soon as I received this information, I updated the article to reflect that it was in dispute. Later, I saw a couple of posts from some clearly-upset people on facebook that I’d mistaken the new Justin Paquette for the old Justin Paquette. Who would have thought a small town like Keene could have two Justin Paquettes and they were both dangerous people who don’t respect property rights?
Justin Paquette (the younger one)
Turns out, there are indeed two Justin Paquettes in Keene. It also turns out, after some research at Cheshire superior court this week, that both Justin Paquettes have been arrested for felony armed robbery.
The original, Justin M. Paquette, just had a birthday this month and is now 32. Court records show that this summer he took a plea deal on a felony armed robbery and misdemeanor “criminal threatening”. You can read the case summary in this PDF, which includes his sentence. (He’s currently out on probation and has a suspended sentence for five years.)
New Justin Paquette is younger, 27, and is now currently facing the fresh armed robbery charges from last week’s robberies, where he allegedly brandished a knife at convenience store clerks.
I am sorry for my mistake. Thanks to all who brought it to my attention. Now we know to beware of anyone named Justin Paquette. Any good person named Justin Paquette may want to file for a name change with their local probate court.
Yesterday, Free Keene broke the news of the nearly-ideal verdict in the James Cleaveland trial for recording cops. Today, mainstream media has picked up the story as well. Thanks to Union Leader reporter Meghan Pierce for actually attending a portion of the trial and filing multiple pieces throughout the week about it.
At one point, Pierce was illegally locked out of the courtroom, as Cheshire superior court has a strange policy that locks the doors during opening and closing statements. Defense attorney Paul Garrity objected to both closings on constitutional grounds, as it should be a public trial. Judge John C Kissinger, who in many cases comes across as a relatively fair judge, refused to budge on his policy and kept the doors locked.
In other media news, the Keene Sentinel published a small report. The full seven-hour trial video is encoding as I write this and should be up hopefully sometime tomorrow. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
While other states are arresting jury nullification activists, New Hampshire allows flyering jurors, AND allows nullification to be explicitly named, described, and advocated for in court, as attorney Paul Garrity proves in the last part of his closing argument in the trial of James Cleaveland for recording video of state police:
If you love liberty and want to work towards making more of it happen, why not do it in the best place for it? New Hampshire is already more free than other places and there are thousands of libertarians and voluntarists, many of whom love jury nullification, that are moving there as part of the Free State Project. Why not join us and help more liberty happen, sooner?
James Cleaveland After His Court Victory
Earlier this year in a bench trial for the same charges, Keene district court judge Edward J Burke found James guilty of both counts. As is his right, James appealed the two class-A misdemeanor charges to a jury trial, even though the sentence from Burke was suspended on condition of good behavior. Ultimately James said he was glad he went to jury trial, as he’s now been vindicated completely on the “resisting” charge, where state police officer Phillip Gaiser lied, claiming James lunged at him and also stepped back 3-4 steps when he tried to cuff him, a claim that was proven false by the video and audio evidence in the case.
In post-trial comments for Free Keene, James said that the video and audio he recorded was critical to his success. Otherwise it would be several cops’ word versus his word, and jurors generally believe police to be honest. Though it was costly in time, stress, and thousands of dollars in legal fees, James is glad he stood up for the right of free press.
Jury Outreach Activists @ Cheshire Superior Court 2015-12-17
This is the biggest jury trial success of any liberty activist thus far tried in New Hampshire. Major thanks to all the stellar activists who braved the cold to hand out NHJury.com trifolds to the jurors and also hold signage reflecting the amount of time James was facing (two years in prison), a detail never allowed to be revealed in a criminal trial.
Full video of the trial is still to come to Free Keene. Stay tuned!
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